Paxton, Jaime and Shawn are back with the second meet-up of the Cult Film Club. For this episode we decided to side-step a discussion of a particular film in lieu of talking about cult movies as a genre. We attempt to break down what makes a film “cult” (is it the content, the audience, or other criteria), while also tackling some questions about what it takes for a film to maintain that elusive status. Can a movie lose its cult? Can a box office blockbuster be forgotten and become cult over time? We also spend some time looking back at (ranting about) our shared experiences with Kevin Smith’s Viewaskewiverse, and we try to figure out what went wrong. We ended up recording a much longer conversation than anticipated, so we broke this one down into two parts. You can expect part 2 in the coming weeks.

It is bad, but it’s bad because they were trying so hard to make a good “bad” movie, if you know what I mean. They were trying to manufacture that bad movie feel that people love. I have fond memories of it because of the hype Alamo Drafthouse built around it and the midnight premiere they had. We met Quentin Tarantino in line to watch Snakes on a Plane at midnight! Then we drank Sam Jackson’s Bad Ass Ale while watching him kick snakes off a plane! How nuts is that?

Oh man, Power Rangers is on streaming! I didn’t see it. (Insert noise of door slamming while my footfalls go running towards the other room). Seriously, it’s been forever since I’ve revisited it. I saw that the show was on streaming, I wonder if the first season is there…?

I feel like I’m live-commenting this three weeks after-the-fact, but your mention of the “no budget film-making” reminds me a lot of the DIY music scene. The cost of production and the ability to get your music online and out to an audience has effectively given just about every person the ability to write and record their own album and quality-wise they can be pretty similar to a major label release. Film is generally a much more time and money intensive process, but I see it going the same way.

The Guild is a good example and I’m a huge fan of the show. Web series have become a much more interesting venue for me over the last year or so. A lot of them are terrible, but there are some legitimately good series being produced on almost no budget or through fan funding.

Great episode! I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Kevin Smith and the View Askewniverse. I hated that Smith put his wife into Clerks II, when she’s really not that great an actress. It reminds me of how Judd Apatow keeps putting HIS wife in movies where she doesn’t really belong.

While I agree with Smith’s wife, I’m actually a fairly big fan of Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife. I think she’s not only hilarious but fairly hot, too. She and Paul Rudd were the best things about the overrated Knocked Up. She was also excellent in 40 year Old Virgin and Big Daddy.

I need to see This is 40. I love Paul Rudd in the Apatow flicks, but I’m still on the fence about Mann. I really thought she was funny in 40YOV, and her cameo in Freaks and Geeks was fun. Unfortunately I couldn’t stand Knocked Up and really disliked Funny People…

Agreed on 40YOV, but that was a “less is more” situation. She was a good utility player. I don’t find her that hot, though I can see her appeal (same with Jen Schwalbach). I didn’t like her as the love interest in Funny People, and I really didn’t like her character in Knocked Up. Maybe they kinda justify some of that in This Is 40 (haven’t seen it yet), but she kinda came off as a shrew. You feel bad for Paul Rudd

Yeah, I don’t mind a little bit of nepotism, but some folks don’t know when to quit. I think Apatow amd Smith both fall into that camp of filmmakers that prize the experience of making the film over the final product. They know they’ve built a fanbase that enjoys their output and thus will dig anything that fits into that mold, but it can come across as alienating to folks that aren’t up on the in jokes.